Printing experience in Google Chrome is expected to improve as Google embraces Microsoft's XPS Print API for printing on Windows 10

Google finally appears to be making a switch from GDI Print API, which is an old Pre-Windows XP API, to XPS Print API in order for Google Chrome to provide a better printing experience to Windows 10 users. Google recently added a new flag that enables XPS Printing in Chrome Canary; the flag can now be found in the Google Chrome Canary 80.0.3975.0 or later.

According to Google, switching to the XPS Print API will “provides improved performance and would reduce conversations performed within Chromium during printing”.

To enable the flag, visit chrome://flags/#use-xps-for-printing , select “Enabled” and relaunch the browser.

Microsoft also recommends Windows developers to use the XPS Document API instead of the GDI Print API for developing applications for Windows Vista or later versions of Windows.

If you write applications for Windows Vista or later versions of Windows, consider using the XPS Document API and the XPS Print API to use the higher-performance graphics interfaces that are supported by XPSDrv print drivers.

“The XPS print path is built upon the XPS printer driver model (XPSDrv), which provides several benefits for developers such as “what you see is what you get” (WYSIWYG) printing, improved color support, and significantly improved print performance,” Microsoft explained.

via Techdows